Get you up to speed: Israel kills Iranian intelligence minister as tensions escalate following strikes

Iran confirms death of key minister in Israeli strike | News World

Iran has confirmed that intelligence minister Esmaeil Khatib was taken out in a strike overnight by Israel.

Khatib’s death comes just a day after the killings of the country’s national security chief, Ali Larijani, and the head of the IRGC’s Basij paramilitary force.

Prime ‌Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorised the military to ⁠kill any ​other senior Iranian official ​being ​targeted without the ⁠need for additional approval, the Israeli Defence Forces added.

Khatib was among the officials that the US was seeking information on last week, offering a reward of up to $10m.

After the Israeli strike, which killed Larijani on Monday, Iran launched a wave of missiles towards Israel and unleashed cluster warheads over Tel Aviv.

Israel reported at least two salvoes of incoming fire yesterday, and the country’s medical service said two people were killed in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.

Two people died in the ‘revenge attack’ (Picture: AP)

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said the force launched the Khorramshahr-4 and Qadr multiple-warhead missiles to avenge Larijani’s killing.

Footage filmed by The Associated Press showed at least one missile releasing cluster munitions over Israel.

Cluster bombs – or cluster munitions – are a type of weapon which works by dispersing large numbers of tiny bomblets from a rocket, missile or artillery shell.

These bomblets scatter in mid-flight over a wide area. Over 100 countries have banned the use of these cluster bombs, largely because of the unpredictable and hard-to-track nature of their damage.

Larijani, a former parliamentary speaker, was a senior policy adviser to the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on strategy in nuclear talks with the Trump administration.

Minister of Intelligence Esmaeil Khatib was killed (Picture: AFP)

The US Treasury sanctioned him in January for his role in coordinating Iran’s violent suppression of nationwide protests.

The US embassy in Baghdad also came under fire for the second day in a row early on Wednesday, two Iraqi security officials said.

Further details were not immediately available, but pro-Iran militia groups have been regularly attacking American targets in Iraq since the start of the war.

On Tuesday, a drone crashed inside the Baghdad embassy compound.

Israel flattened an apartment building in central Beirut about an hour after issuing an evacuation notice. It was the fourth time the building had been targeted, but three strikes last week failed to bring it down.

Comment now

Comments

Add WTX as a Preferred Source on Google

Add as preferred source